Gizel Berman, sculptor and Holocaust survivor
 |
|
||||||||||
A survivor of the Nazi death camps of World War II, Mrs. Berman became a Mercer Island sculptor whose works demanded that everyone remember that terrible time so it wouldn't happen again.
When she died in her sleep Monday (Feb. 25) at 82, she had achieved renown for her bronze sculptures, particularly one created for the Holocaust Memorial that stands outside the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island.
In her autobiography, "My Three Lives: A Story of Love, War and Survival," Mrs. Berman wrote, "Never forget, but live in hope."
It was a message she also delivered in her frequent talks at schools, universities, churches and other centers.
"Some people came out of the Holocaust very, very bitter. My parents both came out very positive," despite undergoing extreme hardship and losing most members of their families, said Mrs. Berman's daughter, Margaret Berman of Scottsdale, Ariz.
"She strove to make a difference," her daughter said.
She and others remembered Mrs. Berman as a woman of remarkable strength combined with great humor.
Mark Jaroslaw, whose Niche Press published her memoirs, said Mrs. Berman recalled setting her fellow concentration-camp prisoners laughing by making fun of the Nazi officers and their wives.
"You could look at Gizel and see her merriment," Jaroslaw said. "She didn't talk about the healing power of laughter — she'd just make a joke."
Born Aug. 26, 1919, in Czechoslovakia, Mrs. Berman and her husband, Nick, were a young couple when they and many others were crowded into cattle cars and shuttled to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Fearing the worst, they carried cyanide pills and seriously considered using them to end their lives, Margaret Berman said. But her mother said to wait, they might survive, and ultimately they did.
Separated at Auschwitz and later moved among various camps, the Bermans remained apart until Allied troops liberated the camps. Their eventual reunion was "a miracle," Margaret Berman said — accomplished only after Gizel searched throughout Eastern Europe for her husband and finally found him in a refugee camp in Hungary.
After the war, the two immigrated to the U.S. In 1948, after Nick Berman, who was trained as a doctor and dentist in Europe, earned his American dental degree in Kansas, the couple moved to Seattle, and he established a dental practice.
A friend said Mrs. Berman began experimenting with sculpture by creating whimsical animal forms from warm candle wax at the dinner table. Later, she studied art at Seattle University.
The art achievement of which Mrs. Berman was proudest, said her daughter, was the sculpture for the Holocaust Memorial. The piece is composed of bronze letters forming the Hebrew phrase "Lo Tishkach," meaning "Thou shall not forget."
Jaroslaw said the main floor of the Berman home on Mercer Island was like "a good-quality boutique museum," featuring many of Mrs. Berman's bronze pieces. Attached to them all, she was reluctant to sell them, he said. The Bermans recently moved to a Seattle apartment.
Mrs. Berman's influence has the potential to travel far beyond the Northwest. Jaroslaw said he has attempted to give a copy of her memoirs to every Holocaust museum in the world and has distributed hundreds so far.
The Bermans' experience also was memorialized in director Steven Spielberg's oral-history film documenting survivors' Holocaust recollections. Margaret Berman said Spielberg interviewed her parents for 12 hours.
A memorial service yesterday in Seattle was attended by hundreds of people, Jaroslaw said. Mrs. Berman is survived by her husband and daughter.
Judith Blake: 206-464-2349 or jblake@seattletimes.com.