After Zaurov's lecture on Deaf Holocaust, Zaurov proceeded to introduce to us four Deaf Holocaust survivors: Lea Huysmans Halpern, Anna Vos Van Dam, Abraham Neumann and Jacob Ehrenfeld. These four told stories that had the most emotional impact on us, the participants of the conference - as soon they were finished, we were all either sniffling or had tears pouring out of our eyes. First up on the stage was Lea Huysmans Halpern, a Deaf Dutch Jew who managed to escape the Gestapo by hiding in the country, constantly on the move. As soon the war was over, she discovered that her whole family perished in the Nazi camps. This was very hard on her.

Next Zaurov introduced us to another Deaf Dutch Jew, Anna Vos Van Dam, who was a pretty 81 year old woman with a bright personality. She had never told her story on stage before, and seemed to have a hard time to begin her story. Once she started, she was on a roll and had all of us in tears at the end. Here's what she basically said: when the Germans occupied the Netherlands in 1941, her family went into hiding. Life was very hard because it was usually dark where they hid. However, someone found out about them in 1944, so they were sent to the Mechelen camp. Before they were sent there, the Nazis slapped a sticker labeled "Taubstumm" on her and another Deaf girl that she knew. "Taubstumm" was like "deaf and dumb" in German. As they were nearing the Nazi desks at the camp, a prisoner on the other side looked around and told Anna and the other girl to take off the sticker in gestures. That prisoner looked terrified. The other Deaf girl said don't worry, but Anna at the very last minute took off her sticker. Well, right at that moment they were at the front of the Nazi desks. This Nazi officer told the Deaf girl who still had the sticker to go that way (where the smoking chimney was, Anna said she couldn't help but stare at it and wonder about the strange smell), and told Anna to go the other way to the work station. The Deaf girl waved good-bye and said "see you later". Anna had a strange feeling. When she got to the work station, she knew she had to pay attention not to give away the fact she was Deaf. She did the work, all day, for 10 to 12 hours a day. Three days later she asked someone by gesturing and pointing to the smoking chimney. That person gestured as if cutting throat. She realized with horror her Deaf friend was dead, and probably her family too. She cried every night, tried to do that quietly but by day worked like mad. She was transferred to two other camps, once at Auschwitz. Once she thought she found a way to escape, and ran for dear life. Unfortunately, the Nazis found her and severely beat her legs. She was sniffling a bit when she said this, and she said because there was no doctor, one of her legs was never set properly - she pulled up her pant leg to show her leg. OMG. It was one of the worst cases one could ever see of a leg that is never set properly. She calmed down, and said it was too bad because very soon after this, the Russians came and freed them. She saw herself in the mirror for the first time in four years, and was so shocked by what she saw: no hair, dirty, so very thin. But alive.

Zaurov went on to introduce us to Abraham Neumann, a Deaf Polish Jew. He and his family experienced the German occupation of Poland, being put in camps only to have the Russian Army take them all back to Siberia just before the war was over, and when it was over, they went back to Poland. He later moved to Israel in 1949, where he has been ever since.

Zaurov introduced us to the last survivor, Jacob Ehrenfeld, a Deaf Hungarian Jew. Jacob and his family were taken to camps in 1944, and he was put to work on farms. He also collected cigarette butts to make new cigarettes, sold these to get food. His father was murdered by Nazis, his mother died in camp in 1945. He was reunited with his brother and sister, and in 1947 moved to Israel. Incredibly, his trip to Israel was just as horrible as being in camps: the ship encountered a storm and capsized, killing many abroad - Jacob survived that one, too!

The fifth speaker was Simon Carmel, of whom most of us Deaf Americans know as a Deaf magician. However, he works at RIT/NTID and wasn't even at the DHI Conference. In fact, before his time came up, I had checked with several Deaf to see if Simon showed up, and they all said no in a puzzled way. I could not believe he would not show nor was there any announcement. Finally someone came on stage and said Simon Carmel could not make it, but he did send a video. Aha. Simon came on the video and apologized for not being at the conference. His lecture was about how he got involved in Deaf Holocaust research, and how this led to his current study of folklore. He opened by saying how shocked he was to meet a Deaf survivor of the Holocaust in 1960's, and from there he decided to do more research by interviewing more survivors. He asked many organizations to help by donating money or even filming. Many turned him down. This was what led him to writing all about Deaf folklore. He raised a very good question: "What about the Deaf in Lebanon? The Deaf in Rwanda? Are they suffering as much? Do we want to hear the same stories as those Deaf Holocaust survivors in the future?"

Lunch break occurred here, and it was interesting to see many run for a different place other than where we ate for lunch. I was one of them, and I joined Michael Marzolf of Virginia, a delightful retired Deaf teacher. We went over the morning's lectures and agreed that the story of Anna Vos Van Dam had the most impact on us - we could not talk much because we were numb, eating our lunch quietly before going back.

The sixth speaker was a Deaf British man named Peter Jackson, the author of several Deaf crime books in England. A strong looking fellow who seems to loom over everyone in the room, Jackson also was also a strong history buff. His lecture was about "Deaf Injustices", where Deaf people are incriminated for crimes they do not commit, or do not have rights during trial. His lecture was fascinating, because he proved that Deaf injustices happen AROUND the world - Australia, Norway, America and so forth. He presented five case studies, and pointed out what was wrong with them: no interpreter present, interpreter misinterpreted, police misconduct and so forth. Scary, indeed.  His books can be found on his website.

The seventh speaker was a Deaf Russian - American professor of Deaf Studies at Brown University, named Arkady Belozovsky who is a most engaging gentleman. His lecture on "Deaf Intellectual Purge During the Stalin Era" was eerie, something one would think could never happen. But it happened. Here was what he said in a nutshell: "In 1999, I met a man named David Ginzaburgsky in Russia. He wanted to give me some documents that he hid away. I was puzzled, but he insisted that I have them and research those. He explained a bit. When I got home, I looked at the photos and documents. One of the photos showed a huge Deaf group in St. Petersburg taken in the 1930's - on the back, I was shocked to see some German names. I hoped to go back and interview David some more, but he died in 2004. Here was what I found so far - in 1919, The House of Deaf Cultural Society was formed and had its own building in St. Petersburg. I found old documents, such as The Deaf Mute World Monthly that started in 1916. This newspaper had more information about this society. They believed in promoting friendships with Deaf all over the world. That was how Deaf Germans ended up coming to visit this Society and even moving to St. Petersburg. By 1937, one of Stalin's men named Ezhov / Yezhov did not trust this House of Deaf Cultural Society because.....ummm...they had Deaf Germans in it, and any relations with Germans was a no-no at that time. So, Ezhov had 39 Deaf people from the Society shot and killed. No questions asked. These Deaf included Germans and Jews, and even just all Russian.

Note: Belozovsky mentioned the Deaf History Museum in Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg), but I am not sure if he said David Gingzburgsky, the man who gave him the papers,  founded this museum - I will doublecheck with Belozovsky.

The last speaker of the day was a Deaf Russian woman named Maria Evseeva, who works and edits a Deaf magazine in Russia. She came on stage strong and proud and went on with her lecture, "People and Destiny". The title of her lecture had me puzzled until she finished her lecture, and I wished it was a different one - it was close enough, though. She told the story of two Deaf Russian Jew greats, Emmanuel Slutsky and Ilya Cherches and how fate messed with their lives. She started with Slutsky and his sports career in which he broke world records and recieved much honor and glory. Well, when the USSR became democratic, Slutsky moved to Israel where no one knew him or about his glory days in the USSR. He withered and died in 2002. However, on the other hand, Ilya Cherches, who like Slutsky was a sports great in the wrestling field. Just before he was going in Deafolympics in wrestling, his family emigrated to Israel. Cherches chose to stay in the USSR instead. Much to his shock, USSR officials told him he could not participate because his family moved to Israel! Cherches did not give up and taught wrestling to young ones for 20, 25 years. When USSR fell, Cherches ran for the opportunity to compete in the Deafolympics again - he even managed to win one medal! Today he and his family lives quietly, and he continues to coach wrestling.

Note: As Evseeva was giving her lecture, I could not help but think of the line from the film, "Terminator 3": "Fate is what you make of it." Sigh.

There was an announcement after this speaker that there would be a meeting of Deaf History International, to pick the new president of DHI Board and the new site for the 2012 Deaf History International, to start at 5:30 that evening. Earlier in the day I had noticed Canada's Ali Behmanesh scurrying like mad among the attendees, and Sweden's Tomas Hedberg passing flyers around of which I picked up a copy - it's a beautiful bronchure for the 2009 DHI Conference to be held in Stockholm, Sweden. Its theme? No history, no future. How true!

Postscript: Remember Anna Vos Von Dam? Well, when she finished her speech, Fridolin Wasserkampf came scurrying on stage and said, "I knew this beautiful lady for a long time. Since 1951, I think. I thought she was so beautiful, even back then. I have to tell you (sniffling a bit) I thought she didn't like me at all. Now I know it wasn't me, it was because I am German. I did not know what happened to her, and I am so sorry." He hugged her. Sniffling became worse, let me tell you, across the audience.