God had no pity for the Children of Teheran
A new film that is scheduled to be broadcast this evening, exposes the shocking story of The Children of Teheran for the first time. One of the Children of Teheran is businessman Aryeh Mintkevitch, who speaks for the first time about endless nightmares, the unrelenting refugee experience, and his friendship with another one of the Children – Alex Gilady.
By Ruth Zoo'aretz
"My mother never told me a thing" – Mintkevitch
It took Dalia Guttman and David Tour three years to produce the film that is scheduled to be shown on Channel 10 tonight, "Journey of The Children of Teheran." Dalia Guttman believes that the painful topic, which has escaped serious attention until now (with the exception of a book for teenagers by Dvora Omer), is branded in the collective memory of many Israeli Sabras. "The story of The Children of Teheran was a kind of oral lesson, myth embedded in the story of our nation."
So let's try to get our bearings in history.
"In 1939, when the Germans occupied Poland, Polish refugees crossed from eastern Poland into the USSR, and from there were exiled to Siberia. When the Stalin - Sikorsky Pact was signed between Russia and Poland, permitting the Polish army exiled in Russia to leave the USSR and assist the allies in the war in Europe, the Jewish refugees were also permitted to leave their place of exile in Russia. From there, they left for warmer countries such as Uzbekistan and Iran, because they believed that those countries had sufficient food supplies. They were however wrong, and many died of hunger or epidemics. Many orphans were transferred to Christian orphanages.
"The Joint collected the children in order to bring them to Israel, but no country was willing to permit the children's passage on route. After a long globe-spanning journey, after crossing the Indian Ocean to Port Said, and from there to Gaza, the children finally reached the land of Israel.
How many children are we talking about?
"Over 700 children arrived in Israel in February 1943, half of them orphans. This was the first time that the local population in Israel began to comprehend the extent of the Holocaust in Europe. From the interviews I conducted, with people including Major General (Res.) Yanush Ben Gal, yet another of The Children of Teheran, I discovered that they all shared a bottomless sense of sadness and orphanhood which many of them have never addressed. In terms of their physical needs, the treatment they received in Israel was wonderful, but the kibbutzim that took them in did not know how to treat their mental anguish. Many of them have never spoken of their stolen childhood. There are some stories that you just can't forget, like the 9 year old who was forced to bury his father in the mud of Samarkand, or the little girl whose mother and sister died while they lay next to her in a wagon."
One of The Children of Teheran is Aryeh Mintkevitch, right hand man to Nuhi Dankner of the IDB Group, and one of Israel's senior businessmen and current chairman and deputy chairman of board of Elron. He was previously chairman of the Israel Discount Bank, and the Israel Securities Authority.
Only in 1993 when the mother of Keshet President Alex Gilady – one of the Children himself – called to seek Minkevitch's mother for a reunion that she was organizing, did Mintkevtich discover that he was one of the Children of Teheran. It was then that Mintkevitvh learned for the first time of the arduous and incredible journey that his mother and father experienced, as well as the fact that he was entrusted to an orphanage at the age of 6 months.
When he discovered his common roots with Gilady, Mintkevitch adopted him as his brother.
"My mother never told me a thing," recalls Mintkevitch. "This was typical of Holocaust survivors in general. Since I learned about my parents' story, I have become involved in the Holocaust, and every year I accompany groups to the death camps in Poland. The silence apparently stems from the survivors' inability to describe their experiences over there in words."
How would you describe these survivors?
"They are all people who have been deeply hurt and carry deep wounds; these wounds also affected the second generation, and that includes myself. This was even manifest in the First Gulf War. My father was in a nursing home, and when the rockets landed and sirens were sounded, he would immediately run and hide some bread under his mattress. It was an instinctive reaction. These survivors are stricken with anxiety whenever they see a piece of bread being thrown into the garbage.
"I'm just the same. When I travel abroad, I take everything with me, piles and piles of things to be prepared for any event. That's typical of a refugee, to have everything with me, whatever happens. My quick eating patterns, supposedly to prevent anyone from grabbing my food before I finish eating, also stem from those wounds. I imagine that there are other effects that I can’t even put my finger on, even in my conduct in business.
Mintkevitch visited Poland for the first time as a guest of the Polish Securities Authority.
"I agreed to help them build up the authority on two conditions: one, that I would visit the death camps as an official guest of the Polish government, and second, that I would participate in a symposium in the Polish parliament. The first condition was simple to fulfill, and I cried when I was there. The second condition, which was more complicated for them, was also eventually fulfilled and I participated in a very charged discussion with Polish members of parliament on Polish collaboration with the Germans in the genocide of the Jewish people. However, many Poles also helped Jews escape and survive."
