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President Ben Fisher started the meeting at 12:30 pm. PPx2 Steve Day was today’s friendly greeter, and PP Ed Jackson led the Pledge of Allegiance. PP Ed Gauld was not available to lead the song of the day, but PP Gordon Fell ably led the group in “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”. Christine Clayburg introduced her guest for the day Eric Guerrero from a vintage clothing store in Westwood. Rotaract Zach Foster also attended the meeting.
President Ben spoke about the recent evening meeting with Rotary International President elect Mario Cesar Martins de Camargo and showed pictures from the event. He said that he was proud to have signed and presented a check to the RI President Elect for $5,000 for wildfire relief in California.
PPx2 Diane Good described the slides of artwork for this year’s Pageant of the Arts. The first-place entry from the club’s University High School student winner is a watercolor painting of two young people improving the environment by cleaning up a beach.
PP Chris Gaynor gave an update about restoration after the recent devastating fires. After the debris has been cleared and permits have been obtained, a prefabricated home can be installed on the property in about 6 months. Apparently one can participate in planning the home’s layout. Modern-day prefabricated homes are an improvement over mobile homes of the past.
PP Chris Gaynor then presented the thought of the day which consisted of wise quotations from one of our greatest Presidents and his favorite President, Abraham Lincoln.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
“My concern is not whether God is on our side, my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
“You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”
PPx2 Diane Good informed the club of the recent passing of long-time member and Past President Jim Collins. PP Ed Jackson, PP Mike Newman, PP Steve Scherer and Treasurer Terry White shared memories of Jim Collins. PP Ed Jackson mentioned that he had joined Rotary as a result of meeting Jim Collins. PP Steve Scherer said that instead of arguing a point, Jim Collins would continue to ask questions until the other person realized that Jim was right. They all mentioned that Jim Collins was a successful businessman and philanthropist. He had franchises for KFC and Sizzler and was the founder of Collins Food International. Jim Collins supported organizations such as the Boys and Girls club of Venice and also donated funds to build the Collins-Katz YMCA near University High School. He graduated from UCLA and was a major donor to the university. He provided funding for the Collins Center for Executive Education which is part of the Anderson School of Management. Jim Collins and his wife Carol have also donated endowed chairs to UCLA. Jim Collins was an upstanding person with a life well lived.
PP Tom Barron introduced today’s speaker, Jay Heit, who has produced film and television programming with top studios and production companies. Recently he has been the producer and distributor of a documentary based on Heather Dune Macadam’s book about the true story of young Slovak women who were the first people deported to Auschwitz. The documentary is titled: “999: The Forgotten Girls”. (Apparently Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, was a numerologist, and the number 999 may have indicated completion and closure.)
Jay Heit presented a portion of the documentary as well as a trailer for the film. The documentary includes interviews with some of the survivors who are now in their 90s or 100s. One of the survivors described a decent life and good rapport with non-Jewish neighbors in Slovakia before 1938. However, everything changed after the Munich Agreement in 1938 when Josef Tiso, an antisemite, was placed in charge of the Fascist government in Slovakia. There was anti- Jewish legislation, passports were confiscated, and businesses were turned over to Slovaks. There were also many posters depicting Jews as despicable people. Jews were not allowed to work and were in dire financial straits with little food. In March 1942 there was an announcement that young, unmarried Jewish women were required to report for work. The young women thought that they were going to be working in a shoe factory, and they had no idea what horrors awaited them at Auschwitz. They worked as slave labor at Auschwitz from 1942-1945. Conditions were horrific, but some of them managed to survive, perhaps because of slightly better food rations. They witnessed the extermination of fellow Jews from Slovakia and elsewhere. In 1935 there were about 135,000 Jews in Slovakia, and now there are about 2,500.
Jay Heit is in the process of promoting and trying to distribute the documentary. The documentary has been shown at film festivals and at meetings of various organizations. Rotary members asked whether he had contacted PBS stations and whether he had contacted the USC Shoah Foundation.
Below is background information about this part of Eastern Europe.
The Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were included in the Habsburg Empire, and Slovakia was ruled by Hungary. After 1867 both areas became part of the combined Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved in the aftermath of World War I, Czechoslovakia was created. After the Munich Agreement of 1938, the Czech portion was ruled by the Nazis, and Slovakia became a Fascist “puppet” state. After World War II the two areas again became Czechoslovakia within the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. In 1993 after the collapse the Soviet Union, they became the separate nations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia (or Slovak Republic). The two countries apparently still have good relations. The Czech and Slovak languages are two distinct languages in the West Slavic language group, but they are mutually intelligible.
This was a very informative presentation about a dark period in human history. It has now been 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, and it is important to hear the firsthand accounts of the relatively few remaining survivors.
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