Community says farewell to Gussie Zaks, z”l

 

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO—At a packed funeral service Tuesday, March 13,  at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, the community bade a final farewell to San Diego’s First Lady of Holocaust Survivors, Gussie Zaks.

The longtime lecturer, organizer, and educator—who had told her story of survival countless times to students, club members, law enforcement, and numerous disparate groups—died at Seacrest Village on Sunday, March 11, at the age of 92, leaving two children, four grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.  According to her daughter, Marcia Rosenberg, “Gussie,” as everyone knew her,  considered each one of her descendants, and their successes, her “revenge against Hitler.”

The service was conducted by Rabbi Joshua Dorsch of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, with assistance from retired Rabbi Emeritus Martin S. Lawson of Temple Emanuel and Rabbi Emeritus Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel Synagogue.  The latter rabbi delivered the main eulogy, which was followed by emotional goodbyes to their mother from Rosenberg and Jack Morgenstern.  Later, Gussie was buried besides her late husband and fellow Holocaust survivor, Mike Zaks, at El Camino Memorial Park.

Rosenthal told of the legend of the lamed vavniks, the 36 people upon whose good deeds the world continues to exist.  They are not aware that they are among the 36, Rosenthal said, and “we may not assign individuals living in our midst to this rare company of spirits, but we do recognize that there are people who possess a certain quality of personality which creates a climate about them, and helps to sustain the community of which they are a part.  Our beloved Gussie Zaks… was such a person.”

Born in Klobuk, Poland, Gussie suffered from anti-Semitism from an early age, Rosenthal said.  “When she was in school, there were only two Jewish kids.  She remembered how the teacher singled them out and wouldn’t let them sing, because they were Jews. …  In nearby Czestochowa, there was a shrine to a painting known as the Black Madonna. Every year there was a festival and all of the school children would go up to the shrine and celebrate. But not Gussie, and her Jewish friend.  They were made to attend school that day, which consisted of them waiting by themselves until everyone else returned from the celebration.”

The experience that Gussie and her husband had at the hands of Poles “puts the lie to the Polish government’s recent attempt to white wash the participation of Poles in the Shoah,” Rosenthal declared.  Furthermore,  he said, “When Mike and Gussie took their family back to Poland in 2003 to see the place in which they grew up (Mike had also lived in Klobuk before moving to Czestochowa), she insisted on visiting the church with the Black Madonna.  She told her family, ‘before I die I want to see that damn black Madonna.’   She went into the church and saw a reproduction painted on black velvet, the original having been returned to Mexico. She walked in among the tourists, gazed at it, walked out, and said, ‘Now I can die in peace.’”

However, anti-Semitism continued to dog her steps on her visit to Poland, Rosenthal reported.  The owner of Gussie’s previous home refused to let her see it,maintaining falsely that Gussie had never lived there.  A neighbor, however, said she remembered Gussie and her family very well.  “One of the last stops on the trip was Krakow, and as was her custom each week, Gussie wanted to have her hair done.  Marcia and Jack dropped her off and went off to a local square to have coffee. When they came back they found Gussie screaming in Polish at the other clients. The woman in the shop had asked her why she was visiting Poland.  She told them she wanted to show her children where she grew up.  The woman said to her, ‘You will find that everything is much better now, now that we have gotten rid of the Jews.’  Having experienced Polish anti-Semitism early in her life, Gussie was not going to tolerate it now and gave those woman and earful.”

On that same trip, Gussie visited Treblinka where she understood that her parents and most of her six siblings has been murdered in the gas chamber.  Gussie, youngest in the family, had been sent to a work camp—a “miracle,” that she believed had enabled her to survive.  Later she was among 1,000 women who were marched for 12 weeks through the frigid European winter and “then loaded onto box cars for the ride to the Bergen Belsen death camp,” Rosenthal said.  “She was emaciated, weak, and only survived because other women propped her up to make her look taller and healthier than she was.   Right before she was liberated by English soldiers, she said she was 99 percent dead.  ‘Nobody cold react when the English soldier came to our barracks to tell us we were free.’”

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, she contracted typhus which killed four of her hospital roommates, but somehow survived.  She moved to Sweden where she further recuperated and learned that an Aunt Karola in Belgium still was alive.  Karola adopted Gussie, and the two women remained close until Karola’s death a few years ago.

Gussie’s first marriage was to Abe Morgenstern, another Holocaust survivor.  Their son Jack was born in Europe. After learning that she had a cousin in New York, the family was able to resettle in the United States in 1951.

At that point, said Rosenthal, “Life was not easy for Gussie. She didn’t know the language or the culture. She worked in a sweat shop to help support her family.  Before Marcia was born, she put Jack in a yeshiva.  After work she would pick him up, and then go home to make dinner. It was a lot for her, but she rejoiced in being alive and raising a family.

“She was very insecure in those days, especially since her English was not very good,” Rosenthal reported. “When she saw Marcia’s second and third grade workbooks, she asked Marcia to use them to help teach her English.”

Abe and Gussie were divorced, and later Mike Zaks, living in Los Angeles, also divorced, watched a cousin’s home movies in which he saw Gussie wheeling Marcia in her baby carriage.  Mike recognized Gussie as a childhood friend.  He traveled to New York for a bar mitzvah, searched for her, and they were reunited.  Married in 1963, they were together for 45 years until Mike died.

Rosenthal related that “Gussie could not believe what a good man Mike was.  He was easy going, optimistic, fun loving, and he loved her kids and they loved him.  They settled in a home that Gussie bought for $16,000.  Mike soon began to find success in business, and one day came home from one of his walks to tell Gussie that he had just found and purchased the perfect home for them in the Del Cerro neighborhood.  Gussie couldn’t believe it, but when she saw the home… she knew he was right and she knew that Mike had bought it for her.”

Mike and Gussie divided their communal responsibilities.  Mike became president of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, while Gussie excelled as the president of the New Life Club of Holocaust Survivors, which had parties, gatherings, and social occasions together.  She also became a noted speaker about the Holocaust, her efforts winning acclaim and recognition.  The family has boxes and boxes of her awards.

Mike died 10 years ago, and although deeply pained, Gussie soldiered on, continuing to preach messages of tolerance and “never again” to many audiences.  However, six years ago she could no longer live on her own and moved to Encinitas’  Seacrest Village, which is the successor to the San Diego Hebrew Home.   “While it took her a couple of years to adjust, Gussie was afterall Gussie, and soon became everyone’s friend, a natural leader and an advocate for other patients,” Rosenthal said.  “If someone was left out in the hallway too long, it was Gussie who called it to the nurse’s attention.”

Towards the end of her life, Gussie was “bedridden and could no longer do the things she loved,” Rosenthal said.  “She knew it was her time, said her goodbyes, and stopped eating and drinking.  She died peacefully, an end she richly deserved.”

Daughter Marcia Rosenberg filled in some additional parts of Gussie’s life.  At first, “She felt uncomfortable socializing with other Americans because of her heavy accent.  With encouragement from Anita Shonbrun, she joined Sisterhood at Tifereth Israel. With Sisterhood’s warm acceptance and hospitality, and obviously with always a need for volunteers, her passions were ignited for community service.”  Gussie rose to vice president and then president of the Sisterhood.

However busy Gussie was –and she was very busy — “family was always first in her heart,” said Rosenberg.

“Mom surprised me on my 17^th birthday.  She acted as if her day was very busy but she would make time for lunch with me when she was done with her meetings.  Me, being a typical teenager, was a little put off that I had to adjust my day to her schedule.  When she came home from her meetings I begrudgingly jumped in the car with her. She drove to Tom Ham’s Restaurant – Surprise! Inside all my girlfriends were gathered at a huge table decorated with balloons and banners and gifts.  Her mind was civic – but her heart was all family!”

She added: “Gussie and Mike were always about family and bringing everyone together for important holidays, lavish meals that she started cooking days in advance.”

Gussie’s son, Jack Morgenstern, said his mother had four main passions: the synagogue, Holocaust remembrance, the New Life Club and her family.

The family joined the Conservative synagogue in 1963 before its move from 30^th and Howard Streets to 6660 Cowles Mountain Boulevard.  Over that period, they were befriended and inspired by four rabbis—Monroe Levens, Aaron S. Gold, Rosenthal, and Dorsch.  “We have been members here for 55 years and all that time my mother was in charge.  She loved to do the seating arrangements for all the synagogue events.  My mom and dad along with Hal and Helen Cohen started the biggest fundraiser the synagogue ever had – Carnival.  There was never an event that my mom and dad missed.  Look out to the fifth row in this sanctuary and that’s where they sat for every event….”

To tell the story of the Holocaust—and to impress upon her listeners the lessons of tolerance—Gussie would “some days speak at three schools,” Morgenstern related.  “Here would be this little Jewish lady in a big white Cadillac going about 80 miles an hour.  I was scared to drive with her. No GPS in those days but she got to every school in plenty of time. … She confronted Skinheads many times in the schools but she never backed down.  Students in the classrooms called her ‘Gutsy Gussie.’  One of her joys was taking busloads of students to Los Angeles to visit the Museum of Tolerance along with her good friend Pearl Recht and other survivors.  She became friends with the famous author, Elie Wiesel, who wrote many books on the Holocaust, and also Benjamin Mead, president of the U.S. Holocaust Association.”

The New Life Club grew out of the desire of Holocaust survivors to socialize with people who had similar experiences.  Initially, “Survivors on every Sunday with their families went to La Jolla Cove and we had a great time there. One Sunday, Nazis marched down to the Cove carrying their flags. We left and vowed never to go back.  So on Sundays, the survivors went to Ruben Recht’s house in Del Cerro to pay cards, eat, and swim in the pool.”

The Zaks family joined the New Life Club in the mid 1960s, and “my mom quickly became a leader in the club.  She was President a few times.  They would have a New Year’s Eve party here in the synagogue.  They had a beach party picnic at Mission Bay for the members and their kids.”

Back then there were some 300 members of the New Life Club; today there are about 30 led by Rose Schindler.  Only last week, another New Life Club member Agathe Ehrenfried, “a very good friend of my mom,” died.

The fourth passion was family, according to Morgenstern.  “For almost 30 years she would cook for Passover and Rosh Hashanah for 40 people in her house…. My mom was a great cook. … Getting up in years she could no longer tolerate all the work.  So my sister-in-law Linda Okmin took over the holiday cooking and had 40 people in her home and did a great job for many years.”

Morgenstern concluded his remarks by asking the hundreds of attendees to do him two favors:
“Please remember my mom as she was 10 or 15 years ago, when she was a classy, beautiful, elegant woman.  Also my mom would like you to, when you go home today, hug and kiss your parents and grandparents, kids and grandkids, and maybe this world world would be a better place.”

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com.  San Diego Jewish World’s eulogy series is sponsored by Marc and Margaret Cohen in memory of Molly Cohen, and by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.