{"id":23787,"date":"2017-04-07T03:32:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T10:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23787"},"modified":"2017-04-04T17:17:19","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T00:17:19","slug":"tough-kid-still-shines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/04\/07\/tough-kid-still-shines\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTough kid\u201d still shines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chaim Kornfeld (photo by Shula Klinger)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In February, the Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation and Louis Brier Home and Hospital honoured Chaim Kornfeld. And they did so in the place he has especially dedicated his time over the last four decades: the Louis Brier synagogue.<\/p>\n

Chaim was born in Hungary in 1926. His upbringing and education were Orthodox and, for the first part of the Second World War, his family were untouched. From the start of his education at Yiddish cheder, at age 3, he was a good student. Community life continued much as it had for centuries.<\/p>\n

Outside the home, Chaim\u2019s memories describe a tense separation between Jew and non-Jew. \u201cMy father always used to say, \u2018When you see a Shaygetz<\/em>, cross the street. Go on the other side.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Needless to say, young Chaim did not always do as he was told. \u201cI took the beating instead \u2013 but I fought back, too.\u201d He adds, \u201cEspecially at Easter time, they\u2019d call you dirty Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to imagine a young Chaim\u2019s spirited response. Even at 90, he is energetic and expressive in conversation. \u201cI was a tough kid,\u201d he says. His daughter Tova adds with pride, \u201cHe gave as good as he got!\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1944, Chaim was preparing to go to Franz Josef National Rabbinical Seminary of Hungary in Budapest. Then, not long before his 17th birthday, his family was moved to a ghetto with the other Jews of their town. Then came the trains.<\/p>\n

Chaim, his parents and one of his sisters were sent to Auschwitz. On the journey, Chaim was permitted to fill a bucket of water for the passengers to have occasional drinks. He also took the dead out of the car.<\/p>\n

On arriving at the concentration camp, Chaim jumped out. Greeted with ordinary scenes \u2013 \u201cchildren playing, laundry drying\u201d \u2013 Chaim\u2019s mother figured she could work in the camp laundry.<\/p>\n

Chaim relates how \u201can old man came up and asked, \u2018Do you speak Yiddish?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yes, of course.\u2019\u201d The man pointed to a German official. \u201cHe\u2019s going to ask you two questions. When he asks how old you are, you say you\u2019re 18. When he asks you what you do, say you\u2019re a farmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young Chaim approached the man with his usual confidence. Josef Mengele asked him his age and profession. Chaim answered as he\u2019d been told. Mengele told him to go to the right. His parents were sent to the left. Before they were separated, Chaim\u2019s father made a final request: \u201cBleib a Yid<\/em>.\u201d (\u201cRemain a Jew.\u201d) Afterwards, Chaim heard others say, \u201cYou see that smoke? That\u2019s your parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Auschwitz, the Nazis stripped the prisoners of their belongings and identity, shaving off Chaim\u2019s hair. He smiles ruefully. \u201cI had lovely peyis<\/em>, nice and curly.\u201d Having only spent two weeks in Auschwitz before being transferred to Mauthausen in Austria, Chaim wasn\u2019t at the camp long enough to get a number tattooed on his arm. He has not forgotten his number, though, and barks out \u201c67655!\u201d at an impressive volume, but not in English, or even Yiddish. It\u2019s in Polish, as he heard it at Auschwitz.<\/p>\n

Asked how he managed to maintain his sanity while facing death every day, he quotes Robert Frost: \u201cI had promises to keep and many miles to go before I sleep.\u201d But there\u2019s more to it. Chaim describes how he kept his promise to his father, in spite of malnutrition and brutal treatment. \u201cI always said, I\u2019ll get out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He speaks with gritted teeth. \u201cI never gave up. Even when I worked in a tunnel underground, I was mumbling a prayer. I prayed all the time to make time go faster. I knew the prayers by heart from a very young age. All kinds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaim describes a life of hard labour, misery and oppression. There were about 600 steps up the quarry. We \u201ccarried rocks on our shoulders, every day. There were dogs barking, soldiers pointing guns at us.\u201d There was a pond at the bottom. If a prisoner fell down, he says, they would be pushed in.<\/p>\n

Chaim found that he was the only one who remembered long tracts of the Torah. He led Kol Nidre in the camp, \u201call the others stood around me. I knew it by heart. I got a good education.\u201d To lead a service in such appalling circumstances takes more than just education, however. It speaks to a capacity for leadership and clarity in a situation that is baffling in its cruelty.<\/p>\n

When the prisoners were forced on a death march, Chaim was recuperating from an abscessed ankle. Although barely able to stand, he followed the advice of a fellow prisoner, who told him that if he didn\u2019t leave the camp upright, he\u2019d never leave at all. Limping in extreme pain, Chaim made it out but collapsed afterwards. When an SS officer raised his gun to shoot him, Chaim spoke up with his characteristic blend of optimism and boldness. Having been reminded of what a good worker this young Jew was, the officer permitted Chaim to hitch a ride on a passing wagon.<\/p>\n

Until this year, Chaim was active in Holocaust education. In spite of the many letters from kids, thanking him for his work, these letters can be \u201cpainful,\u201d he says. \u201cThe reminder is not always pleasant.\u201d One might think that even a \u201ctough kid\u201d could tire of telling this harrowing story again and again, but Chaim isn\u2019t flagging. \u201cAs long as there\u2019s someone to listen, I\u2019ll tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

After liberation, Chaim lived at the \u201cinternat\u201d (boarding school) maintained by the rabbinical college in Budapest. Completing two years of high school in one under the instruction of one Dr. Kolben, Chaim still speaks admiringly of his teacher. \u201cShe was quite a lady. Very smart,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Kolben also taught them about the culture of Budapest. It gave the boys a chance to revive their appreciation of the arts, to leave them with images of beauty, after the horrors of the war. These included trips to the theatre in Budapest, to see Shakespeare\u2019s plays. Their influence lives on today in Chaim\u2019s memory. \u201cTo be or not to be, that is the question, whether it is nobler.\u2026\u201d He pauses to let me finish the quote. After staring, dazed, for an instant, I am relieved to find \u201cthe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune\u201d bubble up in my mind.<\/p>\n

\"photo
Chaim Kornfeld in his younger days. (photo by Shula Klinger)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chaim ended up in a displaced persons camp, in Bari, Italy. The hungry residents were frustrated to find that the food stores were locked away. \u201cHe led an uprising and they opened the locker,\u201d Tova says. \u201cHe gave an impassioned speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the DP camp came aliyah. \u201cSomeone came from the JDC [Joint Distribution Committee] to take people to Palestine.\u201d Chaim arrived in 1949, right after independence, and joined the air force immediately. \u201cI was in charge of a platoon of women. That was fun,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI told them, during the day, I am in charge. In the evening, you are in charge!\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about his career, he describes being \u201ca lawyer for 55 years; prosecuting, judging, the lot!\u201d Indeed, Chaim was appointed to the bench. Having developed a habit of quoting the Talmud in his judgments, he earned the nickname \u201cThe Bible Judge.\u201d He would make \u201coff the bench decisions,\u201d which were popular with the courts, Tova recalls.<\/p>\n

Chaim had originally planned to go to engineering school but his English was not fluent enough. \u201cIt was so hard, so technical,\u201d he says. At the end of his first year, his essay about George Bernard Shaw\u2019s Candida<\/em> got him a C-. \u201cPeople who were born and raised in Canada failed that exam!\u201d he says proudly of his grade.<\/p>\n

His optimistic attitude was evident in his approach to work as well. As a lawyer, he was known for handing out treats at the courthouse. Known as \u201cCandy Man,\u201d he would move up lines of people waiting for their paperwork, greeted by out-stretched hands.<\/p>\n

At the Feb. 25 Louis Brier tribute, Chaim was honoured with a special Shabbat service in his name. With more than 150 people in attendance, Chaim read Haftorah. As Tova, says, \u201clike a bar mitzvah boy, beautiful.\u201d Thanked by many for his work, he was given a Torah cover for one of Louis Brier\u2019s volumes. Says Tova, \u201cIt was really lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting back on his survival, Chaim credits his Judaism for keeping him afloat. This is living proof of Viktor Frankl\u2019s assertion that, to survive, one needed to seek a meaning to one\u2019s existence, even in the camps. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel that G-d abandoned me,\u201d says Chaim. \u201cI never lost my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, he has kept a kosher home for all of his adult life. But survival takes resilience and a good deal of ingenuity, as well as faith. \u201cWe took empty burlap bags and stuffed them into our pyjamas, to stay warm,\u201d he says. When he was starving, he ate coal. \u201cI was my own doctor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

One might think these experiences would define him, but, when presented with the term \u201csurvivor,\u201d he shrugs and grimaces. \u201cRachmanut saneiti<\/em>,\u201d he adds. \u201cI hate pity.\u201d<\/p>\n

One cannot help but see the sense in Chaim\u2019s attitude. Simply referring to this man as a Holocaust survivor would be reductive. He recently celebrated six decades of marriage to his wife, Aliza, and their four adult children all have successful careers. Still active at 90, he has built a reputation as a mensch: generous, respectful, with a buoyant spirit and a talent for relationship-building. And, even now, one sees the tough kid \u2013 the keeper of promises, the kid who took a beating rather than tolerate bigotry. And, the same kid who jumped off the train in 1944, ready to meet the eye of the man who held \u2013 and toyed with, tortured and destroyed \u2013 the lives of his contemporaries.<\/p>\n

Chaim has only just retired. He still reads the Tanach in his office and attends shul on Saturdays and Sundays. He talks of keeping up with his hobbies: \u201cSwimming at the JCC every day. Making my wife happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shula Klinger<\/strong> is an author, illustrator and journalist living in North Vancouver. Find out more at niftyscissors.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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