It was a coincidence that bloomed into a friendship and learning opportunity.
Cantor Rochelle Helzner of Tikvat Israel Congregation first met Croatian Holocaust survivor Dora Klayman when the two were at a friend’s house for a Shabbat meal in the summer of 2024.
Helzner and Klayman discovered that they would both be going to Croatia at the same time in September 2024 — Helzner for a Jewish heritage tour that her sister was leading, and Klayman with a group from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she was a volunteer.
They witnessed Klayman’s uncle posthumously being inducted as a Righteous Among the Nations, a title given to non-Jewish people who assisted victims during the Holocaust, by Israel’s Holocaust memorial. Helzner attended the induction ceremony at the Jewish Community Center in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, where she learned more about Klayman’s family history.
Klayman was born in 1938 in Yugoslavia, modern-day Croatia. Klayman’s parents had been captured by the Ustaše, a Croatian fascist group who worked with the Nazis, for being Jewish, leaving behind Klayman and her younger brother. The children were taken in by Klayman’s aunt and her husband, who wasn’t Jewish but was involved in anti-Nazi activities.
That uncle was arrested as a political prisoner and placed in Jasenovac, the same concentration camp as Klayman’s father. Meanwhile, Klayman’s mom was sent to Auschwitz.
The children lived with Klayman’s aunt until she was discovered as Jewish and arrested. Before her arrest, she placed Klayman and Klayman’s younger brother in the care of two non-Jewish community members, who pretended that the Klaymans were their children.
Klayman attended church and was baptized, evading the Nazis. Her parents weren’t so fortunate: Her father was murdered in Jasenovac and her mother never returned from Auschwitz.
Klayman and Helzner visited Jasenovac in 2024, now home to a museum, and found Klayman’s father’s name on a plaque.
“It was very, very moving,” Helzner said of the experience. “And the truth is, we don’t know anything about the Holocaust in the Balkans and it was very eye-opening for me. I didn’t even know there was a huge concentration and extermination camp [in Croatia], one of the largest in Europe.”
She said an estimated 70,000 people were killed at Jasenovac in Croatia; a majority of the victims were Serbian, Romani, Jewish or socialists.
Helzner invited Klayman to share her unique story with the Tikvat Israel community in Rockville on Jan. 26.
“I felt that it was important that on International Holocaust Remembrance Day we learn about this [Croatian] community which was so devastated by the Holocaust and the Nazis,” Helzner said. “I thought, ‘My synagogue really needs to hear this story.’”
She added that a once-thriving Jewish community in the Balkans was never the same after the Holocaust: “They’re struggling.”
Both Helzner and Klayman want to share Klayman’s story in hopes of educating people on the largely unknown parts of the Holocaust.
“We don’t know this history of the Holocaust in the Balkans and the vibrant Jewish community that used to be there,” Helzner said. “We know the history of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and Germany; we don’t think of the Jewish community in Croatia. … I felt that [Klayman] has a very vibrant, engaging personal story to tell, and that we should know about this and honor the memory of her family members.”
Helzner said it’s more important than ever to hear from Holocaust survivors firsthand and that she looks forward to introducing Klayman to the Tikvat Israel community.
