Egon Aufrichtig

Book releases

Events surrounding the tragic story of the Kladovo-Šabac affair were detailed in a book entitled Parashat Kladovo Šabac, published in 1991 by  Am Oved publishing house. Put together by Delia Ofer and  Hannah Weiner, the original was translated into English by Anna Barber  and published by the University Press of America, Inc under the title Dead-End Journey - The Tragic Story of the Kladovo-Šabac Group.

www.aufrichtigs.com wishes to extend thanks and appreciation to Delia Ofer, Hannah Weiner and Anna Barber for the painstaking efforts to produce this chronicle. Our reproduction of the acknowledgements made by Delia and Hannah is to similarly show appreciation to them and their many contributors and to convey our thanks for the inclusion of family member Egon Aufrichtig.

Acknowledgements

The English edition of this book could not be possible without the generous support of Mr Irvin (Yechiel) Brodsky.

This is an English translation of a Hebrew book, Parashat Kladovo Šabac, published in 1991, by Am Oved publishing house. The research was carried out under the auspices of the Ha 'apala Project, founded in Memory of Shaul Avigur, who sponsors a series on illegal immigration to Palestine .

Anna Barber, the translator of the Hebrew text worked with love and dedication and we thank her for her devotion and good ideas.

This book would not have been possible without Yehoshua Berger, 'graduate' of the T'chelet-Lavan-Netzah youth movement in Vienna , who was one of the earliest members of Kibbutz Ne'ot Mordechai and now lives in Holland . Berger wanted to uncover what had happened to his friends and comrades at Beit Hehalutz in Vienna ("the urban kibbutz") and to Arye Dorfman — Jukl — their beloved counsellor, who became the leader of the ill-fated Kladovo-Šabac transport. He began to gather material, supplying us with letters, archival sources from Germany , Belgrade , and Vienna , and the names of people who might be able to provide oral testimony, as well as written material from the period. We therefore wish to extend our special thanks to Yehoshua Berger.

The list of those who should be acknowledged is very long, and we are only able to mention some of them by name here:

The Klein family (of blessed memory) had the great wisdom to donate dozens of letters written by Walter Klein to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Archives in Jerusalem, thereby providing the historian with an invaluable resource, the means of reaching back to the personal world of the Kladovo-Šabac illegal immigrants who perished.

We are indebted to the Youth Aliyah youngsters who left Šabac for Palestine in the early spring of 1941 and were thus saved at the eleventh hour. Today most of them are grandparents, living in the towns and kibbutzim of Israel . At their initiative, a gathering commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the murder of the Kladovo-Šabac group was held at Kibbutz Gan Shemuel in 1981. At the same time, a modest memorial pamphlet was published at Kibbutz Ne'ot Mordecha1, edited by Hannah Weiner. The Gan Shemuel reunion and the appearance of this pamphlet inspired many of those involved to record their testimony and to track down other survivors and the relatives of those who perished. We offer special thanks to Shlomo David, Eliyahu and Arye Rothman, Imanuel Bar-Ziv (Schein), Haim Hagiti (Weinstein), Philip Kornbluth, Moshe Carmiel (Weinberger), Yehoshua Rottenstreich, Anita and Dov Tzur (Zuckerberg), Haim Orenstein,  and Yitzhak Birmbaum, who provided us with hundreds of letters written by parents, siblings, or friends in the transport. Prof. Ze'ev Ritter gave us letters written by the late Ehud Avriel from March to September 1939, and Hannah Avriel was kind enough to let us use her husband's personal diary from 1939. Ephraim Lahav was particularly helpful: not only did he help us contact others who had relevant material, he himself was a source of valuable testimony. His detailed descriptions were of great help to us in our attempt to reconstruct the surroundings and daily life of the group in Kladovo and in Šabac. Many others gave unstintingly of their time to record personal testimony. Although they cannot all be named here, we hope they will accept our heartfelt thanks.

Special thanks are due Ehud Nahir of Kibbutz Ha'ogen' a Hashomer Hatza'ir councillor who Accompanied the Youth Aliyah contingent to Palestine . He allowed us to choose from the snapshots he had taken of the Kladovo-Šabac group; most of the photographs reproduced here -are from his collection.

We are indebted to Menachem Shelah, Dina Katan, and Jennie Lebel, who assisted us with material in Serbo-Croatian and furnished lengthy translations. Naomi Laufer demonstrated great patience and dedication in helping decipher the German handwriting of vast numbers of letters.

Many archival staffs assisted us in tracking down materia1 scattered in dozens of files. We particularly wish to thank workers at the Central Zionist Archives, the Yad Vashem Archives, the Haganah Archives, Yad Tabenkin Archives, the Wiener Library, the Israe1 state Archives, and the Labor Party Archives.

This research was carried out under the auspices of the Ha'apala Project Founded in Memory of Shaul Avigur. It was a joint venture, and the experience of researching such a moving subject and writing about it in partnership inevitably led to long discussions concerning the place of the historian's personal point of view. Working together inspired us - and made us even more aware of the paradoxical and very mixed creative satisfaction that must always be the lot of historians who delve into the tragic events of the Holocaust.

We would like to extend a very special thank to Maggie Eisenstaedt, who worked on the production of the manuscript with a good spirit and cooperation; to Yael Orvieto and Ilana Dana, who were always ready to read the text again and again and look for typos and other mistakes; and to Jane Singer for her meticulous preparation of the index.

Dalia Ofer, Jerusalem

Hannah Weiner, Ne'ot Mordechai

1995

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Egon Aufrichtig - Kladovo-Šabac

People WIth Big Heart [Friendship Wthout Borders]

Egon's Letter of  1 July 1940

Egon's Letter of 12 November 1940

Egon's Letter of 20 January 1941

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