Temple Sinai Concert Pays Tribute to the Memory of Anne Frank
"Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now?" So wrote Anne Frank some thirty years ago. The young girl in mortal hiding, captured in her adolescent years the eternal
hope of mankind -- for she spoke of
life. She thrilled to the expectation of what might be when the war was over and the dark years had come to an end.
But Anne Frank's promise could not be realized, for the hiding place was betrayed and Anne died in Bergen-Belsen. She died speaking of fresh air, the warmth of the sun and of the light of human kindliness which would some day dispel the terror inspired in human savagery. Anne Frank came to life just recently on a cold wintry night at Temple Sinai.
The musical evening had just ended amid polite applause. Ben Steinberg had introduced Oskar Morawitz
[sic] whose work for choir, its libretto taken from Anne Frank's diary, had had its premiere performance that evening. Dr. Morawitz took a short bow of acknowledgement and then made a surprise announcement.
He called Victor Kugler to the stage and quietly there came forward the man who once hid the Frank family for so many dangerous months. The audience caught its breath, stood to a man and applauded the shy Mr. Kugler in a spontaneous and thunderous outburst of sentiment and gratitude.
Victor Kugler had been arrested
and sent to his fate -- but along with
Mr. Frank himself, survived those incredible years. He spoke simply. Why had he helped Jews at the risk of his own life? He didn't say. Perhaps he doesn't know. But one thing, one vital fact became clear that Sunday night!
Anne Frank was not merely speaking for emerging adolescence -- for
the idealism of youth which founders under the harsh experience of daily life. She spoke for the eternal optimism of mankind. Hers was the voice of hope, of the glory of days to come. Hers was the voice of humanity surfacing in a sea of despair; the voice of life in the face of the finality of death.
Victor Kugler is Anne's living testament. He was perhaps one of the most inspiring links in the chain of events that gave hope to a young girl on the far edge of a precipice. He is as well, a direct link with those far off days that today gives us hope. By his example he tells us that sanity can come out of madness and that man's humanistic promise may yet prevail.
It happened in our sanctuary. We shed tears for the young girl. Her years so pitifully cut short. And yet with eyes still moist we saluted in our guest the courage we must all have; that we fear we do not have, but which was instantly recognized in the humility of a man who risked all when it mattered.
