...so that we know even during our trials and tribulations, something amazing can happen.
The following was sent to me by a friend, but it moved me so much, that I thought I would post it here for all to share.
The Wedding Dress That Made HistoryLilly Friedman doesn't remember the last name of the woman who designed and sewed the wedding gown she wore when she walked down the aisle over 60 years ago. But the grandmother of seven does recall that when she first told her fiance, Ludwig, that she had always dreamed of being married in a white gown, he realized he had his work cut out for him...
For the tall, lanky 21-year-old who had survived hunger, disease and torture, this was a different kind of challenge. How was he ever going to find such a dress in Bergen Belsen Displaced Person's camp where they felt grateful for the clothes on their back?
Fate would intervene in the guise of a former German pilot who walked into the food distribution center where Ludwig worked, eager to make a trade for his worthless parachute. In exchange for two pounds of coffee beans and a couple of packs of cigarettes, Lilly would have her wedding gown.
For two weeks Miriam the seamstress worked under the curious eyes of her fellow DPs, carefully fashioning the six parachute panels into a simple, long sleeved gown with a rolled collar and a fitted waist that tied in the back with a bow. When the dress was completed, she sewed the leftover material into a matching shirt for the groom.
A white wedding gown may have seemed like a frivolous request in the surreal environment of the camps, but for Lilly, the dress symbolized the innocent, normal life she and her family had once led before the world descended into madness.
Lilly and her siblings were raised in a Torah observant home in the small town of Zarica, Czechoslovakia, where her father was a teacher, respected and well liked by the young Yeshiva students he taught in nearby Irsheva. He and his two sons were marked for extermination immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. For Lilly and her sisters, it was only their first stop on their long journey of persecution, which included Plashof, Neustadt, Gross Rosen and finally Bergan Belsen.
Four hundred people marched 15 miles in the snow to the town of Celle on January 27, 1946 to attend Lilly and Ludwig's wedding. The town synagogue, damaged and desecrated, had been lovingly renovated by the DPs with the meager materials available to them. When Sefer Torah (sacred Torah) arrived from England, they converted an old kitchen cabinet into a makeshift Aron Kodesh (sacred cabinet or ark the Torah is kept in).
"My sisters and I lost everything - our parents, our two brothers, our homes. The most important thing was to build a new home." Six months later, Lilly's sister Ilona wore the dress when she married Max Traeger. After that, came cousin Rosie. How many brides wore Lilly's dress? "I stopped counting after 17." With the camps experiencing the highest marriage rate in the world, Lilly's gown was in great demand.
In 1948 when President Harry Truman finally permitted the 100,000 Jews who had been languishing in DP camps since the end of the war to emigrate, the gown accompanied Lilly across the ocean to America. Unable to part with her dress, it lay at the bottom of her bedroom closet for the next 50 years, "not even good enough for a garage sale. I was happy when it found such a good home."
Home was the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. When Lilly's niece, a volunteer, told museum officials about her aunt's dress, they immediately recognized the historical significance and displayed the gown in a specially designed showcase, guaranteed to preserve it for 500 years.
But Lilly Friedman's dress had one more journey to make. Bergen Belsen, the museum, opened its doors on October 28, 2007. The German government invited Lilly and her sisters to be their guests for the grand opening. They initially declined, but finally traveled to Hanover the following year with their children, their grandchildren and extended families to view the extraordinary exhibit created for the wedding dress made from a parachute.
Lilly's family, who were all familiar with the stories about the wedding in Celle, were eager to visit the synagogue. They found the building had been completely renovated and modernized. But when they pulled aside the handsome curtain, they were astounded to find that the Aron Kodesh, made from a kitchen cabinet, had remained untouched as a testament to the profound faith of the survivors. As Lilly stood on the bimah (alter) once again, she beckoned to her granddaughter, Jackie, to stand beside her where she was once a kallah (bride). "It was an emotional trip. We cried alot."
Two weeks later, the woman who had once stood trembling before the selective eyes of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele returned home and witnessed the marriage of her granddaughter.
The three Lax sisters - Lilly, Ilona and Eva, who together survived Auschwitz, a forced labor camp, a death march and Bergen Belsen - have remained close and today live within walking distance of each other in Brooklyn. As mere teenagers, they managed to outwit and outlive a monstrous killing machine, then went on to marry, have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and were ultimately honored by the country that had earmarked them for extinction.
As young brides, they had stood underneath the chuppah (marriage canopy) and recited the blessings that their ancestors had been saying for thousands of years. In doing so, they chose to honor the legacy of those who had perished by choosing life.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. The email I received is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iraq, Iran, and others claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets because there are others who would like to do it again.
Remember....so that none of this was done in vain.
If you're like me, a child of the 70s and 80s, you remember a show called "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century." That devilishly handsome, if not misplaced Buck, who "woke up" in a different time period than his own. Well, we know what happened to Buck, but what happened to the actor who played him?
Gil's past: He was born January 23, 2943 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas but dropped out before graduation. He landed a job as an industrial chemist. He became regional manager of a large chemical company headed by governor Wynn Rockefeller in a few years. His employers said they would name him the firm's vice president if he went back for his master's degree so he quit rather than tell everyone that he didn't have a college diploma. He studied drama in New York by day and drove a cab at night. One night Gil picked up a fare who showed a lively interest in the problems of unknown, unemployed actors. Before he left the cab, he told Gil to report in a few days to the set of Love Story, which was being filmed on location in New York. When Gil arrived on the Love Story set, he was hired as an extra. Later that day, he was singled out for a 'bit' role, which eventually wound up on the cutting room floor. Oddly enough, he started his career in the soap opera 'The Doctors' 1973-1976. He married Connie Selleca in 1979 (they later divorced in 1987) and fathered a son, Gil. He then married Bobi Leonard in 1988 and divorced in 1989.
Well, you ask, where is he now? Gil started his own company Prudhomme Productions. He now enjoys directing and producing more than being in front of the camera. He appears all over the world at various Sci-Fi conventions. He is also active in charity work. He supports the Special Olympics, working with Los Angels Mission (an organization that helps the homeless), and takes part in the Hack-N-Smack celebrity golf tournament that supports melanoma research.
