New Photo of Elie Wiesel in France?
 By Carolyn Yeager This picture is now available for purchase at the USHMM website. The information about it is given as follows: Date: 1945-1946 Locale: Ambloy (Loir-et-Cher) France Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Binem Wrzonski Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Title: Group portrait of boys in the Ambloy children's home. USHMM Commentary: In June 5, 1945, Binem joined a group of boys and young teenagers, known as "The Buchenwald Boys" who were brought to France in a special convey under the sponsorship of the O.S.E. They first were brought to Ecouis in Normandy. An aid worked (sic) helped Binem to make contact with his one surviving sibling, Towa who had spent the war in the Soviet Union. From Ecouis the children were taken to either secular or religious homes. Binem at first wanted to go to a secular home, but Leo Margolis, a German Jew who was in Buchenwald for approximately six years and helped care for the children, persuaded him to go to a religious home. Binem then went to Chateau d'Ambloy. From there he went to Taverny. Then together with two other teenagers, with Elie Wiesel and Kalman Kaliksztajn, he accompanied a group of younger boys to Chez Nous in Versailles where worked as a counselor. From this experience, Binem decided to become a teacher. After training in France, he immigrated to Israel and became the principal of a Youth Aliyah boarding school. In Israel he met and married Rahel Schlezinger and they went on to have five children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In 1983 Binem returned to Lodz and erected a new marker at his father's graves including the names of all of his family members who died during the Holocaust. [end of USHMM commentary] * * * * Binem came from Buchenwald, but not Elie Wiesel and maybe not his good friend Kalman! What is amazing about this commentary on the picture above is that Elie Wiesel is NOT said to have been at Buchenwald with Binem, but encountered him at Taverny. Elie and Kalman, according to Binem, accompanied a group of younger boys to Chez Nous in Versailles where they worked as counselors. This actually makes a lot more sense. A narrative in which Elie Wiesel is not a withdrawn, scarred youth from the concentration camps, but possibly .... Continue Reading Donate via PAY PAL | 
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