The Hatikvah

The Hatikvah

August 15, 2026

In our earlier years, in New York, we joined the Jewish Community Center (JCC). It was part of our lifelong search for the good family. This went pretty well until April 15,1985 – the fortieth anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen Belsen Camp. They planned a small ceremony for this. They invited our friend, Russell Barton, to speak. We, went.

Russell was English; not British; of that he made quite clear. He had shocks of white hair. He wore tweed suitcoats in summer. He always had one hand in a suit coat pocket.

In April 1945 Russell had been a senior medical student in a London medical school. A medical corps staff member of 21stArmy Group (Montgomery) came to Russell’s medical school and asked for senior medical student volunteers, to lead the way into Bergen Belsen, whose liberation was imminent. You see, at that time, they had the idea that typhus, which was endemic in the camps, was not transmissible to young people, like medical students. They expected no German resistance. So, Russell went.

For this ceremony in 1985, they had set up rows of white chairs in the sculpted reception area just in from the lobby of the JCC. There was a lectern there, and out beyond the lectern, a courtyard of sculpted gardens and spring flowers. Russell stood at the lectern, silhouetted behind by the spring sunshine. It was all very fine.

Russell told of coming through the Bergen Belsen gate in a jeep, slowly, a few 21stArmy Group soldiers with Tommy guns on either side. Just through the gate, the jeep stopped. There they were, out in front of the jeep, quiet, staring, ragged – the liberated prisoners of the camp. Russell said, when the jeep stopped, there was a terrible silence.

A terrible silence now came over the JCC reception area.

But then, just then, in the courtyard out behind the lectern, clouds came, and the spring sunshine went to dark.

Russell spoke of moving forward on foot, into the gatherings of the prisoners; of the staring eyes; the silence; the stench of death’s fell presence everywhere.

Back at the JCC black clouds descended close upon the courtyard.

Russell spoke of going into the “barracks” of the camp, where the dead lay.

At the JCC just then a crash and flash of lightning burst pieces of the courtyard gardens into the air. The shock wave of it fractured one of the long windows behind the lectern. The lights of the JCC, went out.

Russell sat down.

Now, one aged member of the JCC stood from the audience. She went forward to where the lectern was, and there were two candles on pedestals beside the lectern. She lit them both. She turned to the audience, and raised up her arms. Everyone stood. They sang the Song of Hope – the Hatikvah.