This article appeared in the November 22, 2013 Jewish Advocate.
Dedham WWII veteran sees fruition of
his efforts:
Personal hero who saved Jewish lives recognized by
the ADL
By Susie Davidson
Special to the
Advocate
“Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered
as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is
considered as if he saved an entire world.”
This Talmudic saying, which appears in
the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:9, is spoken by accountant Itzhak Stern to
Oskar Schindler near the end of Steven Spielberg's famed film, as he
conveys to his boss that he has indeed, saved humanity by making a
difference.
Of course, other righteous humanitarians saved
Jewish lives during World War II, and organizations such as Yad
Vashem are still recognizing them. However, Julian Bussgang of Dedham
always felt that one man had been left out, and when he learned that
the ADL had established the “Jan Karski Courage to Care Award,”
named for the Polish resistance fighter, he decided to take action.
“In 1941, when the Germans invaded Soviet Union, Andrei
Sheptytsky, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church in Lwow (from 1901 until his death in 1944), decided
to shelter some Jews, and urged his priests and Ukrainians in
villages to help Jews,” Bussgang told the Advocate, following a
conversation at the Cafe Europa Holocaust community event held at
Temple Reyim in Newton that day. “He saved many Jews, including
many children, two rabbis, and families of rabbis. His brother
Clement Sheptytsky, who headed the Studite Order, helped
him.”
Bussgang, a Holocaust refugee who went on to serve in
the Free Polish Army that fought in Italy , has two personal friends
who were saved by Sheptytsky, sons of the rabbi of the Progressive
Synagogue in Lwow (now Lviv) to which his family belonged. The
synagogue was destroyed during he war, but Bussgang returned in 2008
to celebrate his second bar mitzvah at a nearby building. That same
year, Bussgang wrote a paper about Andrei Sheptytsky entitled
“Metropolitan Sheptytsky: A Reassessment,” that appeared in Vol.
21 of the book POLIN, published by Littman Library of Jewish
Civilization.
“During the German occupation of the eastern
half of Poland (June 1941–July 1944), Sheptytsky exercised his
authority as regional head of the church to shelter and save Jews in
the monasteries and convents under his supervision,” Bussgangwrote
in the paper. “As a direct result of his instructions, members of
the clergy reporting to him hid and protected between 150 and 200
Jews, mostly children.” He goes on to describe how the arthritic,
wheelchair-bound Sheptytsky directed his younger brother Clement to
make the hiding arrangements, and for that role, the brother was
recognized by Yad Vashem in Israel as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’
and was beatified by John Paul II during his papal visit to Ukraine
in June 2001.
“[But] To the distress of many of those whom
he saved, and in spite of their repeated requests, Metropolitan
Sheptytsky himself has not yet been designated by Yad Vashem,”
wrote Bussgang, who dedicated the remainder of the article to
depicting Sheptytsky and his efforts and making the case for his
recognition. Still, nothing was forthcoming.
“When I learned
that ADL had developed its own program to recognize those who had the
courage to save Jews, I decided to suggest to them that they consider
Sheptytsky to be named posthumously for their award,” he said this
week. On October 31, he realized his aspirations when the ADL honored
Sheptytsky with its Jan Karski award during its 100th anniversary
ceremony in New York. Survivors were invited, as well as
representatives of the Greek Catholic Church, and guests included
Rabbi Dov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, who came from Kiev,
along with Jewish leaders from Canada. The ADL had asked Bussgang to
locate a family member who could receive the award on behalf of the
family. The designated person was Prof. Jerzy Weyman, a grandnephew
of the Metropolitan who was a professor of mathematics at Boston
University, but had recently moved to the University of Connecticut.
On behalf of the Sheptytsky family, Weyman graciously accepted the
award, which was established in 1987 to honor rescuers of Jews during
the Holocaust.
In presenting the award, ADL National Director
Abraham Foxman, himself a Holocaust survivor, said, “Andrei
Sheptytsky displayed compassion, even love, for his Jewish neighbors.
. . In addition to those he saved directly, who knows how many more
he saved indirectly, through his strong moral voice that influenced
others to act.”
For Bussgang, it was long overdue
for those saved by the Archbishop. “I began my quest because the
survivors saved by Sheptytsky felt discouraged and disappointed that
Yad Vashem had still failed to recognize one of the great saviors of
Polish Jews; probably the highest-ranking official of the Catholic
Church, who had the courage and took the risk to act,” said
Bussgang.
Andrei Szeptycki, in Polish, or
Sheptytsky, in English (1865-1944) was born a Polish nobleman who
evolved from Roman Catholicism to becoming a Greek Catholic priest
and eventually, an archbishop, or a Metropolitan, whose jurisdiction
included Lwow. The Greek Catholics are an eastern rite that report to
theVatican, and they are mostly Ukrainians. “Sheptytsky was
friendly with Jews before the war,” Bussgang said. “When the
Soviets occupied eastern Poland, the Soviets were not friendly toward
Greek Catholics, because the Russians were mostly Greek-Orthodox and
reported to the Patriarch and not to the Pope. And the Greek Catholic
Ukrainians wanted independence for Ukraine.”
“Sheptytsky
was...recognized for his courageous efforts to protect Ukrainian Jews
from extermination by supplying false identification papers and
shelter from the Nazis at a time when such acts were punishable by
death,” stated the ADL in its “ADL Posthumously Honors Ukrainian
Archbishop for Saving Jews During the Holocaust” press release of
Nov. 1. “We are honoring Metropolitan Sheptytsky for his selfless
commitment to the goal of preserving human life, and for fighting
anti-Semitism under the Nazi regime during a harrowing and dark
moment in history,” said Foxman in the release.
“Witnessing
the ADL event gave the survivors who had been saved by the
Metropolitan, and their descendants, who were frustrated by the
position of Yad Vashem, much satisfaction and relief,” said
Bussgang. “They felt a debt of gratitude to him and wanted a Jewish
organization to pay him tribute.”
Thanks to his efforts, one
has.
According to its website, The
Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913, is the world's
leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through its programs and
services that counter hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
To view
the ADL news release and a video of the event (right-side column,
under “Related,” please
visithttp://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/holocaust-nazis/adl-posthumously-honors-ukrainian-archbishop.html