Temple Chai to hold Terezin Tree dedication Aug. 18
On Friday, Aug. 18, beginning at 5:45 p.m., Temple Chai, a reform Jewish congregation in Long Grove, will host a special event during its annual Shabbat Under the Stars - the dedication of a small maple tree, which is a descendant of the famed Terezin Tree.
The Terezin Tree was planted by children imprisoned in the Nazi Terezin concentration camp during the Holocaust. Temple Chai's small tree was donated by Dede and Sam Harris, who are members of the temple.
The remarkable saga of the Terezin tree is recounted in carefully researched detail by Dede Harris in her recent book, "The Children's Tree of Terezin."
"I wrote this book because I was deeply affected by the history of the Terezin tree," said Dede. "I wanted to tell how, in spite of the horrible circumstances in a Nazi concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, Theresienstadt (Terezin), an inspired teacher, Irma Lauscher, and the children of Terezin still found a way to make this a better world and to maintain their unwavering faith in a compassionate God."
This is the story of the Terezin tree:
In 1943, Jewish prisoners in Terezin established an adult council. The council decided that the many children in the camp would continue to have a Jewish education. Irma Lauscher held clandestine classes and taught the children about Jewish holidays, including Tu B'Shevat, a joyful holiday which includes the appreciation of trees.
Lauscher asked a helpful Czech guard to smuggle a small tree into the camp for the children to plant. It was illegal to bring anything into the camp, but the guard hid a small sapling from a silver maple tree in his boot and brought it to Lauscher.
The children then planted this very small tree. A rabbi in the camp blessed the tree and the children, with the hope that the children would be soon planting trees in their own free lands. The children watered the tree by sharing with it their meager, daily water rations.
A child, who later died in the concentration camp, wrote a poem that, in part, stated, "There were three things the Nazis could not take from us. The blue sky above us for our grazing … the flood of sunlight … nourishing our tree and us … Our invisible God who remained deep in our hearts." Of the 2,500 children at Terezin, 120 survived.
"But the tree lived on," said Dede. "Over 600 saplings from the original 1943 tree have been planted around the world to honor the memory of the children of Terezin," she said.
In 2005, a delegation from the Jewish United Fund of Chicago visited Terezin and was given a sapling from the original Terezin tree. This sapling was nurtured by the Chicago Botanic Garden. In May, 2009, the sapling, now grown into a tree, was given to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie.
Dede and Sam Harris were present at the museum for the dedication of the tree. Sam is a Holocaust survivor and a past president of the museum's board of directors. Dede is a docent or guide at the museum.
"After the dedication, I realized that the story of the Terezin tree could teach a lesson about the Holocaust in a different way," said Dede. "So, after two years of research, including contact with Irma Lauscher's daughter, I wrote, 'The Children's Tree of Terezin'.
"In 2016-2017, saplings from the museum's tree were nurtured by the Chicago Botanic Garden. Twenty-five of them were donated or sold for the museum's benefit," said Dede.
"We, were given a small tree," said Sam, "because of Dede's determination to tell the story of the Terezin tree, to the world."
In late June, "we decided to donate our tree to Temple Chai so that our congregants and their children, and their children's children, would know the poignant story of the Children of Terezin and their tree and their teacher, Irma Lauscher," said Dede.
"And besides," quipped Sam, "the temple needed a tree."