Jewish families recount Nazi ordeal, thank Philippines for rescue

MANILA, Philippines - Manila provided safe refuge for Jewish families who fled persecution by the Nazis in Austria and Germany at the start of World War II.

Three children from these families still cannot forget their ordeal even after 70 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

As the world marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp last Jan. 27, the survivors recounted the memories of horror of the Nazi regime.

Gordon Lester, 69; Celia “Topsy” Black, 67; and Mary Faquhar, 72, were all born in the Philippines after their Jewish parents fled the Nazi regime in Germany and Austria between 1938 and 1939.

The three are in Manila to attend a reunion of the old American School (now the International School) where they all studied during their stay in the Philippines.

Faquhar recounted how her father, a physicist, lost his teaching job at a Vienna university when the Nazis took over in 1939. Her mother, a physical education teacher, also lost her job at a local high school.

Faquhar said her parents came to the Philippines where her father accepted a job as a physics teacher at the University of the Philippines in Baguio. Faquhar was born in Manila on Oct. 29, 1943 at the height of the Japanese occupation.

Lester, born in Pasay City in 1946, would later ask his parents about their experiences in the Philippines during the war.

“Through my mother Gerda Leschnitzer, I began to know a little more about their history. They did not want to have children in Germany because of anti-Semitism. In December 1938, my father was in Buchenwald. I remember seeing on onionskin paper, a letter stating that my father was in Buchenwald. I was told that concentration camps did not begin until sometime in 1939. However, I distinctly remember the phrase ‘Konsentration lager Buchenwald’ and ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (work sets you free) with my father’s name on that piece of paper,” Lester said at a press conference in Makati City on Tuesday.

“My mom was able to get her freedom after about one month in the concentration camp. Life was not easy. However, being German they were able to stay out of the concentration camps set up by the Japanese in Manila. I was told that the Japanese revered the German military and being German they were able to live outside the camps. I do remember a photo of my parents looking out of the window from their home and, several blocks down, one could see the University of Santo Tomas, where the Americans were held. I, however, do not know when the photo was taken. It very well could have been taken after the liberation of Manila,” he recounted.

For Black, her family’s experience in the Philippines was more emotional as they were welcomed and comforted by their Filipino friends.

“My parents married in Berlin in April 1939. My father survived the Kristallnacht (night of the broken glass) by living outdoors. His bride, my mother, brought him food and change of clothing. He slept on park benches with drunks and hid with the populace during the day. He had a Catholic aunt whose sister was married to the notorious Martin Bormann (head of the Nazi chancellery). He told my parents to leave as the Nazis were preparing to exterminate the Jewish people, first in Europe and then the world; he gave them legal German papers to leave,” she recounted.

“They booked passage in Italy and their destination was Shanghai. However, the ship was docking in the Philippines. The Philippines was opening its doors to Jewish people fleeing for their lives. My father started the scale industry, getting the Toledo franchise for the Philippines a few months after arriving as he was a scale expert in Germany,” she said.

Black, Lester and Faquhar are thankful to Filipinos for their help in saving the lives of their families during the Nazi regime.

“I am sure all of us will agree, we use the words the generosity of the Filipinos… very, very true. So I want to thank you,” said Lester as tears welled up.

‘Philippine Rescue’

At the onset of World War II, some 1,200 German and Austrian Jews found refuge in the Philippines between 1937 and 1941 in what was to be later known as the “Philippine Rescue.”

At the start of the 20th century, the Frieders, a Jewish family living in Cincinnati, owned a cigar factory in Manhattan. In 1918, they decided to relocate it to Manila to reduce production costs. Brothers Alex, Philip, Herbert and Morris took turns living in Manila for two-year stints, where they rubbed elbows with the city’s wealthy and powerful.

Col. Dwight Eisenhower, who would later become US president; Paul McNutt, the American High Commissioner (now equivalent to the rank of ambassador); and Manuel Quezon, the president of the Philippine Commonwealth, were poker buddies of the Frieders’.

The Philippines was a US Commonwealth at the time and gained independence in 1947.

In 1938, Alex Frieder convinced his well-heeled friends to allow in a few German and Austrian refugees who were docked, without proper visas, at the port of Manila.

The goal was to bring in thousands more. Within a few months, the brothers gained Quezon’s approval, while McNutt persuaded his State Department colleagues to be more flexible with visa quotas.

The Frieders then began putting “Help Wanted” ads in Jewish newspapers in Germany, offering refuge in Manila. To prove that the refugees would improve the local economy, the Frieders focused their efforts on professionals such as doctors and veterinarians.

They continued to advertise in German Jewish papers until 1940, but the rescue effort ended in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After the attack and the subsequent American entry into the war, US consulates in Germany, which had been issuing visas to the Jewish refugees, were shut down.