Trump Announces he is Jewish, “Hoodathunkit”
VeteransToday
In his latest op-ed,
aimed at deflecting a barrage of accusations of anti-Semitism against US
presidential candidate Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, prominent
businessman of Jewish descent and Trump’s son-in-law, mentioned how his
ancestors managed to flee from a ghetto during World War II and even
join the resistance fighters.
The WWII Exploits of Trump’s Jewish Relatives
Editor’s note: With Trump’s
foreign policy the most pro-Israeli in recent history and his equal
history of surrounding himself with Russia/Putin haters, the love affair
the Russian press has for Trump is quite amazing. Now Trump has done
the full “Albright/Kerry” by declaring his Jewishness. In the real
world, most of us have Jews in our families or lie about it if so
inclined. Jews were fully integrated into German life and our families
are all German/Jewish/Polish or liars. Welcome to the inconvenient
truth.
The story itself is
incoherent. Do note the names “Berkowitz” and “Kagan” mentioned. Who
needs to fear “Hitler” when you have those two infamous monikers.
In his latest op-ed, aimed at deflecting a barrage of accusations
of anti-Semitism against US presidential candidate Donald Trump, Jared
Kushner, a prominent businessman of Jewish descent and Trump’s
son-in-law, mentioned how his ancestors managed to flee from a ghetto
during World War II and even join the resistance fighters.Intrigued
by his statements, Sputnik decided to learn more about the story of his
family’s daring escape from the Nazis and the horrors they had to endure
during their stay in ghetto.
Before the war the Kushner family lived in the town of Novogrudok, located in modern-day Belarus, where they owned a house and a store. The patriarch of the family and Jared’s great-grandfather, Zaidel Kushner, was in the business of making fur coats and hats, which earned him the nickname Hatter. He had three children – one son, Chanon and two daughters, Leia and Rae (the latter would eventually become Jared’s grandmother).
It should be noted that back then Jews comprised over the half of the population of Novogrudok.
Just like the rest of the Jews living in the city, on December 7,
1941 the Kushner family ended up in a Nazi ghetto, Tamara Vershitskaya,
former head of the Jewish Resistance Museum in Novogrudok, told Sputnik.
Only about 1,500 of the 6,000 Jews living in Navahrudak survived the so called ‘selection’ process that followed, when the Nazi officers apparently decided who would live and who would die simply by checking how many children they had and their respective occupations.
The Kushner family was lucky to be among those who were allowed to live. Their luck also held in summer, 1942 when they ended up among the 500 ghetto residents who were transferred to a closed labor camp – those who were left behind ended up being executed by the Nazis.
According to Vershitskaya, Zaidel’s wife, Hinda, and Chanon both ended up among those sentenced to death. But while Hinda resigned to her fate and even tried calling for her husband and daughters to join her and die together, Chanon managed to hide from the Nazis and avoid the firing squad.
This mass execution became the pivotal moment for the inmates – shocked and enraged by the deaths of their friends and loved ones, they decided to stage an escape.
It took the captive Jews four months to dig a 200-meter-long tunnel
to escape the ghetto, they dug it using spoons, forks and scrap iron,
literally scraping their way to freedom.
On the night of September 26, 1943 the prisoners descended into the tunnel one by one, marking the beginning of what became one of the largest, most successful Jewish rescue operations in the German-occupied territories.
The exploits of the Kushner family as part of the resistance are less known, though Zaidel likely toiled at a workshop making equipment for the guerrillas while his Leia and Rae could’ve acted as lookouts, Vershitskaya speculated.
What is known however is that during that time, Rae Kushner met her future husband, Joseph Berkowitz, who later changed his surname to Kushner prior to the family’s immigration to the US.
The Kushner family, along with the families and relatives of other survivors, helped create the exposition at the Jewish Resistance Museum dedicated to the ghetto and to prisoners’ daring escape, both by recounting those horrible events and by providing financial aid.
Before the war the Kushner family lived in the town of Novogrudok, located in modern-day Belarus, where they owned a house and a store. The patriarch of the family and Jared’s great-grandfather, Zaidel Kushner, was in the business of making fur coats and hats, which earned him the nickname Hatter. He had three children – one son, Chanon and two daughters, Leia and Rae (the latter would eventually become Jared’s grandmother).
It should be noted that back then Jews comprised over the half of the population of Novogrudok.
© SPUTNIK/ SERGEY PUSHKIN
Zaidel Kushner
Only about 1,500 of the 6,000 Jews living in Navahrudak survived the so called ‘selection’ process that followed, when the Nazi officers apparently decided who would live and who would die simply by checking how many children they had and their respective occupations.
The Kushner family was lucky to be among those who were allowed to live. Their luck also held in summer, 1942 when they ended up among the 500 ghetto residents who were transferred to a closed labor camp – those who were left behind ended up being executed by the Nazis.
“I know nothing of what kind of a man Zaidel
was, but I do know that he tried to make his family’s stay in the ghetto
as comfortable as possible. For example, when Jews from the first
ghetto were forced to perform hard labor in the city, he used bribery
to ensure that his son was exempt from this practice,” Vershitskaya
said.
On May 7, 1943 about half of the ghetto’s inmates, some 250 people, ended up executed by their jailors.According to Vershitskaya, Zaidel’s wife, Hinda, and Chanon both ended up among those sentenced to death. But while Hinda resigned to her fate and even tried calling for her husband and daughters to join her and die together, Chanon managed to hide from the Nazis and avoid the firing squad.
This mass execution became the pivotal moment for the inmates – shocked and enraged by the deaths of their friends and loved ones, they decided to stage an escape.
© SPUTNIK/ SERGEY PUSHKIN
One of the spoons used to dig the escape tunnel.
“When we found a German military entrenching
tool, I thought it was used for digging, but one of the men who helped
build the tunnel explained that you couldn’t use a spade like that
because the ground was mostly clay. They used spades like that to load
soil taken from the tunnel into sacks sewn from the clothes of those who
were executed. The soil was then hidden in attics, away from the prying
eyes of the Nazis,” Vershitskaya explained.
The prisoners managed to outfit their tunnel with a ventilation
system made of water pipes dug into the ground, and even provide
lighting by tapping into the power source of one of the guards’
floodlights.On the night of September 26, 1943 the prisoners descended into the tunnel one by one, marking the beginning of what became one of the largest, most successful Jewish rescue operations in the German-occupied territories.
“The guards entered the building where the
tunnel entrance was located only when all of the inmates were already
inside the tunnel. They started shooting and in the morning they
launched a sweep of the surrounding areas. And while the escape itself
was very well organized, many of the escapees simply didn’t know what
to do afterwards. Many of them simply went to sleep immediately
after reaching the forest. Therefore, only two-thirds of them eventually
survived,” Vershitskaya said.
Chanon Kushner was one of those killed by the pursuing guards, while
Zaidel and his daughters were among those 152 escapees who joined the
Bielski partisans.The exploits of the Kushner family as part of the resistance are less known, though Zaidel likely toiled at a workshop making equipment for the guerrillas while his Leia and Rae could’ve acted as lookouts, Vershitskaya speculated.
What is known however is that during that time, Rae Kushner met her future husband, Joseph Berkowitz, who later changed his surname to Kushner prior to the family’s immigration to the US.
The Kushner family, along with the families and relatives of other survivors, helped create the exposition at the Jewish Resistance Museum dedicated to the ghetto and to prisoners’ daring escape, both by recounting those horrible events and by providing financial aid.
“There are many successful people among the
former inmates of this ghetto. Jack Kagan is a millionaire, Leibowitz is
a millionaire, the Kushners are billionaires. I believe there is an
explanation for that: if those people could survive here, imagine what
they were capable of during peacetime,” Vershitskaya concluded.
