Elder of Zion

#15, Auschwitz Album Revisited

Oil Painting by Dr. Pat Mercer Hutchens

Appelplatz is a German word meaning place (platz) of roll call (appel). Incoming prisoners were made to stand for hours morning and night, regardless of the weather, while thousands on the roll were counted. It was a time of humiliation and beating. Many died in the rigors of the roll call. On the appelplatz, surrounded by electric barbed wire, Jews gathered for Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Thousands repeated “Baruch Ata Adonai, Melech HaOlam…”

Elie Wiesel wrote, “I listened as the officiating inmate’s voice rose; it was powerful yet broken, amid the weeping, the sobbing, the sighing of the entire ‘congregation.’” The distinguished, faithful Elder of Zion never made it to such a service; he was among those who endured the long train ride in cattle cars, but immediately was herded off after being selected for the category “not fit for work.”

It is hard to believe, but this handsome gentleman was photographed to document what the Nazis call the “negative characteristics of the Jews.” Within approximately an hour , he would be disrobed, either gassed or shot and then burned. He still has his prayer book and tallit (prayer shawl) in his hand. Because I could not see the hand on the photograph very well, my husband, Jim Hutchens, posed with his hand–a very moving experience for us both.